Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Cairo, July 5: The most important group of religious leaders in Iran called the disputed presidential election and the new government illegitimate yesterday, an act of defiance against the country’s supreme leader and the most public sign of a major split in the country’s clerical establishment.

A statement by the group, the Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qum, represents a significant, if so far symbolic, setback for the government and especially the authority of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose word is supposed to be final. The government has tried to paint the Opposition and its top presidential candidate, Mir Hussein Moussavi, as criminals and traitors, a strategy that now becomes more difficult — if not impossible.

“This crack in the clerical establishment, and the fact they are siding with the people and Moussavi, in my view is the most historic crack in the 30 years of the Islamic republic,” said Abbas Milani, director of the Iranian Studies Programme at Stanford University. “Remember, they are going against an election verified and sanctified by Khamenei.”

The announcement came on a day when Moussavi released documents detailing a campaign of fraud by the current President’s supporters.

The documents accused the President’s supporters of printing 20 million extra ballots before the vote and handing out cash bonuses to voters.

Since the election, the bulk of the clerical establishment in the holy city of Qum has remained largely silent.

With its statement yesterday, the association of clerics came down squarely on the side of the reform movement.

The association includes reformists, but Iranian political analysts describe it as independent, and it did not support any candidate in the recent election.

The clerics’ statement chastised the leadership for failing to adequately study complaints of vote rigging and lashed out at the use of force in crushing huge public protests.

It even directly criticised the Guardian Council, the powerful group of clerics charged with certifying elections.

“Is it possible to consider the results of the election as legitimate by merely the validation of the Guardian Council?” the association asked.

The committee also called on other clerics to join the fight against the government’s refusal to adequately reconsider the charges of voter fraud.